Crime

(ATLANTA BUSINESS CHRONICLE) -- Safety is a top concern for people planning to relocate to a new city. Luckily, the national research firm ValuePenguin crunched the numbers in an attempt to determine which areas of Georgia are the safest and most dangerous.

ATLANTA -- A former Delta Air Lines managerial employee will spend time in federal prison after pleading guilty to his part in a scheme to defraud the company.

Paul Anderson, 57, was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. He must also pay more than $36 million in restitution and forfeit his retirement accounts.

Prosecutors said Anderson and a co-defendant, 62-year-old Michael Yedor, submitted false invoices to Delta for work that was never performed. The invoices came from Airborne Voice and Data, a company Yedor claimed to own.

Anderson was hired by Northwest Airlines in 1979 and began defrauding the airline as early as 1999, according to investigators. Delta bought Northwest in 2008, and Anderson became a Minneapolis-based Delta employee a year later, when the two companies merged.

ATLANTA -- The FBI is investigating reports that a Delta Air Lines gate agent boarded several flights without going through TSA security checks, in direct violation of federal law.

According to an indictment, James Crawford is accused of using his employee badge to bypass security and board a Jan. 24 flight from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. He was arrested on the plane before it departed.

Crawford works as a gate agent within the Security Identification Display Area, a restricted area in Atlanta's airport. He has a special badge that gives him access to the area.

On Dec. 26, the Delta Air Lines Ethics and Compliance Office received a tip that Crawford had used his SIDA badge to skip TSA security and board several domestic and international flights.

ATLANTA -- Police have made an arrest after a man was found shot to death inside the cab of a tractor-trailer Thursday morning.

The victim's body was discovered shortly after midnight. The big rig was parked outside a Days Inn in the 2700 block of Forrest Hills Drive in southwest Atlanta.

According to Sgt. Greg Lyon of the Atlanta Police Department, Olubmi Ogunguyi, 35, has been arrested in connection with the shooting. She is charged with murder and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

The name of the victim, said to be in his 40s, has not been released. The shooting is under investigation.

Over the course of your life, the chances of being the victim of a crime are at least one in three, higher if you live in a large city, and higher still if you’re a woman. The criminal’s objective is to maximize gain and minimize risk, and he’ll usually pick the easiest target with the most to offer. Given these odds, it pays to take precautions by following some basic safety rules:

According to information presented in court, Anderson was hired by Northwest in 1979 and became a Minneapolis-based Delta employee in December 2009, when the airlines merged.

Yedor created a fake company, Airborne Voice and Data, that submitted invoices to Northwest for goods that were never provided and services not rendered. Yates said Yedor sent the invoices to Anderson, who approved them in exchange for a cut of the money netted from the scheme.

FULTON COUNTY, Ga. -- Each year during the first full week in May, the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) work to raise awareness of arson and provide individuals with strategies to combat it in their community. This year, Arson Awareness Week is May 4-10 and focuses on vehicle arson.

“Vehicle arson is a very serious matter,” said Chief Larry Few, Director of the Fulton County Fire Rescue Department. “The motivations behind the burning of vehicles are similar to those of other types of arson crimes. Fulton residents should learn ways they can prevent vehicle arson from happening to them.”